Apartment Rents Growing At Slowest Pace Since 2011, Outside Of Pandemic Lockdown Months

Multifamily rents nationwide are still rising, but their growth is the most sluggish it has been in over a decade, with the exception of a brief period at the beginning of the pandemic, Yardi Matrix reports in its latest Multifamily National Report.

In June, asking rents rose 0.4% month-over-month, coming in at $1,726, while year-over-year, rent growth for the month was 1.3%.

Single-family rents also grew in June, but that sector too has seen a slowdown in rental growth, dropping 80 basis points for the month to 1.3% year-over-year growth in June.

Demand for apartments is still strong, the report notes, with occupancy at 95%, chalking it up to a job market that added 1.5 million positions in the first half of 2023, and higher interest rates, which have made buying residential property more expensive.

Moreover, rental growth post-2020 still has some momentum. First-half rental growth averaged more than 6% during the last two years, Yardi reports. From 2014 to 2019, the average growth in first halves of the year was closer to 2.5%.

Multifamily rental growth continues to be concentrated in the Midwest and Northeast, which have seen fewer new apartments developed than other parts of the country.

Rents in New Jersey grew fastest, up 6.5% year-over-year in June, driven by a crop of New Yorkers searching for cheaper places to live, Yardi Matrix reports.

Rents actually dropped year-over-year in some markets in June, including places that had previously seen sizable rent growth, such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, Austin and Seattle.